Description

Our (openSUSE) statistics show that most of our users are not native english speakers. So I'm blindly assuming they do not have a english keyboard either and do not live in an english speaking timezone.

So I want the first page to be not just the language in a blue box, but to have _one_ installation page with language, timezone and keyboard selection.

These selections should depend on each other, so depending on where I click first the others change.

To have a good looking addon, I picture the timezone selection as picture and not as fullscreen list boxes.

Set release notes

Adding References

Adding Usecase

Adding Testcase

Documentation impact

Installation guide needs to be updated.

Discussion

S.
K.
wrote: (10 years ago)

An additional note, Feature #302955 is related (split translations out of installation system).

J.
S.
wrote: (10 years ago)

Isn't it easier for users who do not speak English to have the first dialog really as simple as possible (since they cannot read it)? Having just one selection box leads them straight where they need to get; I guess that most of them use mouse for installation, so keyboard is not an issue either...

Also, we already have a support in isolinux to select language; then the first dialog is skipped.

S.
K.
wrote: (10 years ago)

If isolinux provides a language, then the page is not worse than the timezone page is now. Just that it also allows to change the language after the fact.

If users do not grasp english _at all_, they will have a hard time booting the installation off the CD. So I would blindly assume that users have no problem with selecting Deutsch, русский or čeština when presented with a list even if they do not understand the exact context. And when next to that list is even a graphical presentation of the world, most will be able to select the part of the world they live in.

e.
f.
wrote: (10 years ago)

I think for the secondary target market of opensuse (first time user, home user)an installer wizard that consists of a series of screens would be convenient.

Basically it's preferable that language-, time-zone- and keyboard-selection depend on each other so that modifying one will effect the others. But - as I prefer a picture (e.g. a rotating globe) for time-zone selection - sticking them together in one screen would clutter the whole thing up.

S.
K.
wrote: (10 years ago)

after some discussions with Eva, I want to reexpress my request:

I want the language selection to be on one page together with license and a welcome text and the timezone dialog to be graphical and a proposed keyboard layout associated to the language from the first page.

The license text doesn't have to be visible in full beauty. I talked with the lawyer and what I got was: it's ok if the license can be read, it doesn't have to optimized for scrolling.

I'll work on a mockup. The challenge is that we might need a slightly different work flow for ncurses, but I think popups are ok for it. So you can write UI code, that either fills a special widget or opens a popup.

I would make the map a little smaller and do not show a region and not the name of the timezone again, but rather have the value of the combobox fill in what we have now as Europe/Berlin.

Because I want a "Keyboard: English" with a little test field in there. But that is to be discussed. The main goal is to have a graphical selection instead of these fullscreen list boxes.

M.
L.
wrote: (10 years ago)

Mockup looks good. And the whole thing should simplify and shorten the installation process.

J.
S.
wrote: (10 years ago)

The timezone dialog looks good to me, however, we should not present the other one in the current form. Even if we have a different dialog for NCurses, we still must take care of Qt with the resolution of 800x600.

With the current font size, the text itself will not fit into the screen if it is 800x600. Also consider the license - if one wants to read it, he wants to read a reasonable part of the license without scrolling - and not to scroll every 3rd line.

IMO this suggestion puts the usability a huge step back

S.
K.
wrote: (10 years ago)

damn, fate crashed on my comment ;(

Again: I'm not a good designer

But as a matter of fact: we do not design the default screen estate for reading the license, but of course a better design can add a popup to read the full text in full screen.

L.
O.
wrote: (10 years ago)

Additional step to help user understand where he is and what he can do there is to remove
a [Show Release Notes]
button and place that button to a Welcome Dialog
only. The button doesn't need to occupy installation wizard screen all the time, it often rather confuses users.

BTW, it may not have a sense to offer keyboard configuration together with timezone. Keyboard layout is currently decided according to selected language, so it may better fit together with language. But the language dialog could get eventually too crowded.

http://en.opensuse.org/Image:Yast8.png is Martin's counter proposal. This one needs icons to differ the combo boxes though, but I believe a keyboard and an UN flag should make this obvious enough.

L.
O.
wrote: (10 years ago)

BTW: This complex dialog will not be part of yast2-country (or similar) but directly yast2-installation because it contains more than just defining the language and keyboard settings. License handling needs to be reworked.

J.
S.
wrote: (10 years ago)

Well, OK than. I expect you will ask for creating some API of Language (and maybe Keyboard) module, because current one probably is not sufficient. The API should be used instead writing whole stuff again separately, so we don't have the language handling on more places.